From These Things We Call Hearts
by thumos
Summary: It all started when that new transfer student Shadow arrived - a tremendous, overbearing sense of deja vu. Now complete strangers are being brought together, as if drawn to each other, trying to understand why everything feels so wrong. AU ish.


The day the boy with the cold red eyes transferred into his class was the day Sonic realized that something was amiss. The new student was tall, with broad shoulders and muscular arms, with black and red-highlighted hair that stuck out wildly in different directions. He looked dangerous – like a delinquent of some sort – but there was something decidedly off about him.

Namely, that there was something strangely familiar about him.

The boy's name was Shadow, and word on the street said that he was Professor Robotnik's adopted grandson. Robotnik – the crazy and eccentric, yet somehow kind and loveable biology teacher. Sonic was sure he'd never seen Shadow in his life, but, no matter how hard he tried to clear his head, all he could think was _emeralds revenge amnesia rival_. The teacher gestured toward the empty seat next to Sonic's own seat, and when Shadow walked over, Sonic didn't miss the strange look in the new student's eyes that just screamed recognition.

Still, Sonic smirked in Shadow's direction. "Hey," he greeted, sticking his hand out for Shadow to shake. "The name's Sonic."

Shadow didn't answer, but Sonic could somehow tell that this was normal.

* * *

The freshman chemistry class at Station Square High wasn't a popular one, to say the least. Most upperclassmen laughed at the freshman that had to suffer through it, while trying to avoid the harsh memories of their own trials while taking the course. Those who didn't care about getting into college avoided it like the plague. Unfortunately for Silver, he wasn't one of those people. Silver cared, perhaps a bit too much, about how he appeared to the world, though all he really wanted was to help people. In a perfect world where money didn't matter, Silver would have been perfectly happy spending the rest of his life doing nothing but community service. He loved seeing people smile. When everyone else was happy, he was happy; when everyone else was unhappy, he despaired.

Chemistry was first period, and most of the students looked like they'd much rather be in bed at the moment. But Silver considered himself a morning person, and he always enjoyed waking up with the sun – something that baffled the people who knew him. When the teacher announced that the students would have to pair up, however, a cold pit formed in Silver's stomach. He only had a few acquaintances, and he could only call a couple of them, at the most, friends. But everyone around him was pairing up with each other, laughing and joking about how they'd survive the brutal class together.

At that moment, an image flashed across Silver's mind – a purple cat, surrounded by flames. Despite the fact that fire terrified Silver to no end, he felt _comforted_ by the image. Like everything was going to be fine, no matter what. Sure enough, someone approached him – a girl with short pink hair and wide, vibrant green eyes. "Hey there!" she greeted cheerfully, grinning at him. "I'm Amy. Wanna be lab partners?"

Silver couldn't explain, for the life of him, why he suddenly felt like crying.

* * *

Rouge was easily one of the most popular girls in school – not only for her looks, but also for her cool, calm demeanor. Almost nothing fazed her. She was smart, strong, and beautiful, and she refused to take crap from anybody. People loved her. Underclassmen aspired to be like her. She was the school's idol, and she wouldn't give up her position for all the jewels and riches in the world.

But then, when that new boy suddenly transferred to Station Square High, her world turned upside down.

The boy was a year behind her, who apparently left no outstanding legacies at his old school. In other words, a nobody. But this boy tickled something at the distant corners of her memory, and it didn't take long for her to decide that she _had_ to meet him and decide for herself whether he was worth knowing. Naturally, her peers didn't think anything of her seeking the new transfer student out. Shadow Robotnik (if that was really his name) was, for all intents and purposes, tall, dark, and handsome. He'd be a plaything for Rouge. A brief, unimportant fling.

But, no matter how hard Rouge tried to convince herself that Shadow meant nothing, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she _knew_ him from somewhere. He was just so _familiar_. She couldn't explain why she wanted to hug him and tell him that everything was going to be okay, to support him in every way she possibly could. He was her best friend and she was his, after all.

_No_, she reminded herself. She and Shadow were _not_ best friends because _they'd never once spoken to each other_.

_But it doesn't have to be this way forever._

So, during lunch, ignoring the probing stares of her peers, she grabbed her tray and strode confidently to Shadow's nearly empty table, flashing him a quick smile as she sat down across from him. She didn't know what exactly she was expecting, but a warm feeling bloomed in her chest when his cold red eyes softened when he saw her. "I'm Rouge," she said conversationally.

"I know," Shadow replied.

It really was the start of a beautiful relationship.

* * *

Most people avoided Knuckles if they could. The senior was scary, plain and simple. He seemed to be perpetually angry and, though he didn't have the best grades, he approached school with a scary, intimidating sort of determination and focus. Rouge, who always had the best grades despite never studying, who always threw the most lavish parties, who always strutted across campus with her head held high, disgusted him. He'd always hated her.

Theoretically, it should have started in middle school, when she spread a nasty rumor about him that he (thankfully) no longer remembered, but something told Knuckles that it started long before that. There was just something about her that set him on edge.

But as of recently, every time he saw her, he thought of emeralds.

They weren't emeralds in the conventional sense. There were seven of them, all different colors. Only one of them was green, but something told Knuckles that all the gems were emeralds. And then, there was a large green gem, more than twice the size of all the other gems. Sometimes, Knuckles saw this gem in shards, and sometimes he saw it as a whole stone. Either way, Knuckles loved it. He cherished it. He needed to protect it from Rouge and her sniveling wiles.

He couldn't understand why that thought alone made him feel something akin to affection for Rouge.

* * *

To say that Shadow had an easy life would be a huge, horrible lie. Shadow's life, up to his adoption by Dr. Robotnik, had been anything but easy. His mother died when he was too young to remember her. In moments of wishful thinking, it hurt that he couldn't even remember her face. In those moments, it hurt that he didn't know his father as well as he'd like either.

His father was an enigma, in more ways than one. Sixteen years, and Shadow never once learned his real name – only that he was referred to as Black Doom by the shady men that often visited their measly old trailer on the outskirts of the city. Black Doom was hardly ever at home, and the times the fearsome man _was_ at home were times that Shadow dreaded. Because, when Black Doom came home, it was almost always because something had gone wrong, which would, in turn, motivate him to drink himself into a stupor. And everyone knew that Black Doom tended to get a _violent_ when he was drunk.

Admittedly, it was Black Doom's negligence and occasional abuse that made Shadow as mature and self-sufficient as he was. Because his father was rarely ever home, Shadow became a master at housework – cooking, cleaning, making sure that everything in the trailer was in order. Somehow, Shadow was never dissatisfied, because he knew that things could have turned out much, much worse.

And then, one day, Black Doom came home completely sober. The unnatural serenity with which he told Shadow that he was no longer welcome in the trailer was something that still haunted Shadow. Shadow was being kicked out of the house, through no fault of his own, and though he certainly wasn't happy with the news, he wasn't horribly upset either. Black Doom gave him thirty minutes to pack his meager belongings and leave, and it was in that thirty-minute interval that one of his father's oldest friends decided to visit.

Gerald Robotnik was one of Black Doom's old teachers. Shadow thought it was strange that an eccentric professor could be friends with such a shady man like Black Doom, but, apparently, miracles do happen. Black Doom explained the situation to Robotnik as calmly and rationally as he did to Shadow and, in no time at all, Shadow was being ushered into Robotnik's car. Two weeks later, and he was officially adopted by his father's friend for reasons he couldn't understand. In the fall, he'd be attending Station Square High, the largest public high school in the district. It was strange how such a drastic change to his life, how moving in with a complete stranger, felt so _right_.

There was something strangely familiar about everyone Shadow had interacted with at school on his first day. He'd never met Sonic and Rouge in his life, and yet it was as if he'd always known them, like they'd always been his friends.

… but _friends_ was such a strong word, especially since he'd barely known them for a day. But that was what they were, right? He felt competitive, yet at ease with Sonic. He felt safe and comfortable with Rouge. It was just so difficult to explain _why_.

Shadow was going to be happy here – he could just tell. And he wouldn't let anyone, not even his own father, take that happiness away.

* * *

For as long as he could remember, Silver was terrified of fire. It wasn't the kind of fear that made him only a little nervous, or even the kind that made him want to scream and run away. It was deep, bone-chilling fear that made him tremble uncontrollably at even the tiniest flames. It was definitely worse before, but, thanks to some extremely helpful therapy sessions when he was a child, smoke – incense, candles, cigarettes – didn't unnerve him so much anymore.

But there was clearly something wrong with him. His psychiatrist had said that the fear he felt with fire was the kind that usually surfaced after a horribly traumatic event. But, as far as Silver knew, his life was completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary happened in his childhood. Fearing fire so strongly simply should not have been possible.

… and yet it was. People knew about Silver's weakness – he'd had far too many panic attacks in elementary school to count, after all. It was why they all gave him strange, cursory glances whenever he entered chemistry. They were worried about him, and they constantly wondered if something in the classroom would set him off.

They had every right to be worried, because that day came quickly. It was the day they first had to use Bunsen burners for a lab, predictably enough. He was doing reasonably well at first. His classmates' burners only made him a little nervous. He could only smell the flames, since he refused to look at them. But then, when Amy used the sparker to light their own burner, Silver began to hyperventilate. The flame was tiny and blue, easily controlled by the burner itself, and yet Silver couldn't shake off the thought of it expanding, consuming everything.

An image flashed through his mind – a giant monster rising up from the flames, destroying everything in its wake. Before he knew what was happening, Silver was on the floor, shaking, hyperventilating, crying. He could hear voices shouting, as if from far away. Someone's hands were on his shoulders. But nothing made sense, because all he could think, see, _feel_ were the eternal flames.

He could feel someone dragging him out of the classroom, but it did nothing to ease his panic. Strangely enough, in his hallucination of unending flames, he saw a blue hedgehog…

* * *

The history lecture was boring beyond belief, and Knuckles found himself dozing off in class. He made a valiant effort to stay awake, sure, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He barely caught Rouge's smirk before he drifted off completely.

In his dreams, he saw an entirely different world. He saw echidnas standing in front of a burning shrine – a yellowish one in tribal clothes, a large, dark red one with strange markings over his body, and at least a dozen red ones that looked like warriors. Each and every echidna there had large hands with spikes on their knuckles. "Out of my way, Tikal!" the largest echidna yelled to the small yellowish one.

"No!" the smaller echidna – a girl, Knuckles realized – yelled back defiantly. "I won't obey!"

"We need the power of those seven Emeralds!" the large echidna yelled. "It's power for the people! And they are your people too, you know!"

"Greed is our enemy!" the echidna Tikal tried to reason with the large echidna. "Once it starts, you will always want more. Please, don't do this. I beg you!"

Something akin to indecision crossed the large echidna's face. "I don't want to hurt you," he said, his voice low, "but we need those Emeralds." His back straightened, and he cleared his throat. "Ready, men? Charge!"

"Father!" Tikal shrieked. But the warriors surrounding the large echidna charged forward, trampling Tikal and the small blue creatures around her in the process. They ran up a flight of stairs, and Knuckles slowly realized that all of this was happening at a shrine. At a religious sanctuary. A place of worship.

The large green gem that frequented his thoughts lay at the center of the altar. A monster made entirely of water rose up in front of it, looming ominously before the warriors that skidded to a halt in front of it. A bright light emanated from the gem – _Master Emerald_, said a voice at the back of Knuckles's mind – and the echidnas' screams echoed throughout the shrine.

It was at that moment that Knuckles woke up, screaming. The entire class was staring at him, but he didn't care. What he saw… that actually happened. It was real. It had to be. "Are you all right?" he heard the teacher ask, as if from far away. But he didn't care. All he could see was that water monster, that green gem, those echidnas getting _slaughtered_…

A tug at his dreadlocks yanked him to his feet. "Come on, Knucklehead," Rouge said to him in a low voice. "We're going to the nurse's office. Think you can walk?"

Even though he insisted that he was perfectly fine, Knuckles still felt utterly drained, and he found himself leaning heavily on Rouge as they walked to the nurse's office.

* * *

It was almost cute, how someone as stoic and intimidating as Shadow could look so vulnerable in his sleep. Over the course of the week, Sonic had learned one crucial thing about Shadow: that, despite his appearance, he wasn't a delinquent. While he wasn't a goody-two-shoes by any means, there was a calm sense of purpose about him – a need to do the right thing, though not necessarily to please anyone else.

But even Shadow was bound to slip up eventually. That's how he ended up in his current situation, asleep with his head lying on the desk. But Sonic didn't miss the way his eyebrow was furrowed, almost like he was in pain. Sonic cast a cursory glance at the teacher – Professor Robotnik, incidentally – before leaning over to gently shake Shadow awake. "Hey…" he whispered. "Are you okay? Wake up!"

It was the right thing to do – Sonic was sure. If he was having a nightmare, he would greatly appreciate it if someone woke him up, after all. What he didn't expect was for Shadow to suddenly shoot straight up, his eyes wide and frantic, and scream: "Maria!"

Confusion crossed Professor Robotnik's face as he suddenly stopped the lecture. As Shadow did his best to school his expression into a stoic mask, Sonic couldn't shake off the feeling that something _bad_ had happened. Who was Maria anyway? Shadow's girlfriend? His sister, maybe? Whoever she was, it was obvious that Professor Robotnik knew her.

"Are you all right, Shadow?" the teacher asked, his voice heavy with concern.

"I'm fine," Shadow snapped. "Just fine."

Professor Robotnik sighed and made his way over to Shadow's desk. It was only then that Sonic saw just how _pale_ Shadow looked. Though his face was expressionless, that heaviness in his shoulders had yet to leave. "Shadow, I told you this morning," Professor Robotnik said in a low whisper. "Maria is completely _fine_. She's at college."

Shadow hung his head. "I know," he whispered back. "I'm sorry."

Professor Robotnik placed a hand on Shadow's head. "Maybe you're coming down with something," he said. "A cold, maybe? This happened last night too… You should head to the nurse's office. It's all right if you want to go home and get some rest."

Surprisingly, Shadow nodded once. "Maybe that's for the best," he agreed.

Professor Robotnik shifted his attention to Sonic and gave him a small, strained smile. "Sonic, would you mind escorting Shadow to the nurse's office?"

"I can find it on my own," Shadow interjected.

"I'll do it," Sonic said before he could protest any further. Shadow glared at him icily before stalking out of the classroom. "H-Hey!" Sonic yelled as he broke into a jog to catch up with him. "Wait up!"

* * *

To Amy Rose, the tremendous, overbearing presence of déjà vu was nothing new. It all started at the end of the previous school year, when her mother announced that they would be moving to the sprawling metropolis of Station Square. Mom was nice enough to let her take an unofficial tour of every high school in the district, and then pick which one she wanted to attend, and Amy couldn't have been happier.

Then, everything changed when she saw _him_. A boy with wild, spiky, bright blue hair, sparkling green eyes, and a carefree smile.

Were it anyone else, Amy would have been smitten on the spot, but this boy – _Sonic_, something told her – made her fully aware that something was seriously, horribly wrong. First of all, Amy should _not _have known this boy, by any means. For all she knew, she'd never seen him in her life… but no matter what she did, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she _had_ seen him somewhere.

Nonetheless, she told her mother that she wanted to attend Station Square High, the school the boy – _Sonic_, she reminded herself – attended. If only to be proven wrong in her suspicions.

But when she saw Silver in her first period chemistry class on the first day of school, she finally _knew_. She _knew_ that she wasn't just going crazy. She really _did_ know these people from somewhere. Among visions of hedgehogs and cats and foxes and echidnas, there were these wonderful, amazing people. These were her _friends_, even if they didn't quite realize it.

… but that didn't mean they _had_ to remember. Some of them went through some pretty gruesome things before, so maybe it really would have been better if they just lived in blissful ignorance.

That is, until today. The way Silver completely overreacted… there was no way he could be so freaked out by fire if his memories weren't affecting him at least on a subconscious level. Amy didn't know much about the brain or about psychology in general, but she knew that everything he went through with the Flames of Disaster must have left deeper scars than even he knew.

And so, as Amy walked her friend Silver to the nurse's office, she couldn't help but feel at least a little guilty, for so selfishly keeping those memories away from him. But when they finally entered the nurse's office, she realized, to her horror, that they wouldn't be alone. All of her friends – the ones that attended her high school, at least – were there.

* * *

It wasn't until after Shadow met Professor Gerald's twenty-year-old granddaughter Maria that the _nightmares_ started. It was always the same dream, over and over again. He'd be running, holding someone's hand and dragging said someone behind him as he sprinted through the corridors away from the people chasing them. It was a simple mission: get to safety; if they catch you, it's all over.

And then he'd reach a dead end – a room that didn't lead into any others, and the people chasing him would finally corner him. The person he was running with was a pretty blonde girl in a blue dress who bore a striking resemblance to the professor's granddaughter. Then, a gunshot would ring out, and the girl would fall. And at that point, Shadow woke up screaming.

Professor Gerald had attributed the strange dream to some trauma suffered by Black Doom's hands. It wasn't too much of a stretch from the realm of possibility, after all. But there was something else about the dream that struck Shadow as odd: in the dream, he was _short_. While he proudly stood at just under six feet tall, in the dream, he'd always be much, much shorter, judging from his proximity from the ground. But, despite the drastic height reduction, he also ran much _faster_. Faster than the star athlete of the track team, even. Shadow wasn't an idiot – he knew that it took shorter people longer to cover the same ground. So how was it, in the dream, that he could run so _fast_?

"Hey, buddy," Sonic said from next to him, his hand not once leaving Shadow's back. "You all right?"

"I said I'm _fine_," Shadow snapped back. "It's perfectly acceptable to fall asleep in class on occasion."

"Yeah, but not very many people wake up screaming after napping in class," Sonic pointed out. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'll just head home as the professor said," Shadow said evenly. "We can forget this ever happened."

Sonic snorted, and Shadow bristled. "Yeah, good luck with that."

The nurse's office was a fairly large room, with three beds separated by curtains. The nurse, an old lady with grey hair pulled back into a bun and laugh lines around her eyes, was attending to someone else – a boy with red dreadlocks. But the person sitting _next_ to the boy…

"Shadow!" Rouge was the last person Shadow expected to see there. The senior became his friend all too quickly, but it was as if they were always friends, despite the fact that they'd just met at the beginning of the week.

"Hey, Mrs. Adams," Sonic greeted the nurse casually. "Shadow here took a nap in class and woke up screaming."

The nurse pulled a thermometer out of the dreadlocked boy's mouth. "You too?" the boy asked incredulously, before turning on the silver-haired girl next to him. "See? I _told_ you it wasn't a big deal!"

"You could barely even stand up!" Rouge yelled back. "Besides – just because it happened to someone else doesn't mean it's normal!" The boy flinched when she kicked him in the shin.

"Oh yeah!" Sonic piped up. "Shadow, this is Knuckles." He gestured toward the dreadlocked boy and grinned. "Knuckles, Shadow."

"So you're the new kid," Knuckles mused, smirking.

"You even _think_ of hazing him, and I swear to god, I will lawnmower your balls," Rouge said icily.

"Why do you always think I'm out to cause trouble, you crazy bitch?" Knuckles yelled back at her.

"Because that's what you _do_," Rouge replied with a smirk.

"No, that's _you_!" Knuckles shouted. The way his face grew almost as red as his hair was almost comical.

Their argument was interrupted when the door to the nurse's office swung open, revealing a rather short, pale boy with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a girl with short pink hair. "Hi," the girl said. "I'm really sorry, but Silver… He…"

It didn't take long to realize that there was something seriously wrong with the boy. Silver's golden eyes were wide in horror, his face was nearly drenched in sweat, and his body was visibly shaking. The nurse, Mrs. Adams, rushed to his side immediately. "Oh, you poor boy," she said consolingly, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and clasping his wrist to guide him to an empty bed. "Why don't you lie down?" She turned her head to look at the pink-haired girl. "What did you say his name was, dear?"

"Silver," the girl replied.

"And you are?" Mrs. Adams asked.

"A-Amy," the girl said, looking evenly at all the other occupants in the room. "Amy Rose."

There was something familiar about her too – her and that boy Silver. The way she looked at everyone wasn't quite normal either. She looked so unsure upon looking at Sonic, but then, once her eyes shifted to Shadow, her gaze hardened, and she slowly looked away. When Silver let out an ear-piercing scream, everyone in the room jumped.

"No!" Silver yelled. "The flames… They're spreading! They're destroying everything!"

"No, no, no," Mrs. Adams tried to console him. "There is no fire. Nothing is burning. Please, dear, you have to calm down!"

Amy hurried over to Silver's bed. The boy was sitting up straight – too straight – and something in Shadow's heart seized when Silver suddenly flung his arms around Amy, hugging her tightly. "You won't leave me, right?" he practically begged her. "You won't leave like Blaze did. You'll stay, right?" Shadow didn't know who Blaze was, but it hurt, watching Silver like this.

Amy's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "No," she replied in a breaking voice as she hugged him back and began rocking him back and forth. "I won't leave you. I promise." She took a deep, shuddering breath and turned her head to face the other occupants of the room. "So? Who are all of you? Tell me." She sounded frantic. It was an obvious ploy to distract her from the current situation, but Shadow couldn't exactly blame her.

It was Rouge who decided to humor her first. "I'm Rouge," she introduced herself. "You said your name was Amy, right? Are you a freshman?"

"Y-Yeah, I am," Amy replied shakily.

"I haven't seen you around Station Square," Sonic pointed out.

"Th-That's because I just moved here," Amy replied. "About a month ago."

"Huh," Knuckles grunted. "Everyone made a huge deal about Shadow moving to town, but they completely dropped the ball on you."

"I-It's probably because I'm only a freshman," Amy tried to rationalize. "Sh-Shadow's a junior, right? I heard the rumors."

It was now Shadow's turn to humor her, so he nodded. "Yes, I am," he answered.

Amy turned her attention back to Silver, who was now slowly drawing away from her. "Are you okay now?" she asked him, concern evident in her tone.

"I-I think so," Silver replied, rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands. "Sorry about that."

Amy smiled gently at him. "It's okay," she assured him. "Don't worry about it."

"So you're scared of fire, huh kid?" Sonic asked Silver. "I hate water, so don't even worry."

Silver laughed nervously, swinging his legs over the side of the cot. "I doubt you get panic attacks from it, though," he said jokingly. "So why are all of you here?"

"He fell asleep in class and woke up screaming," Sonic and Rouge said in unison, pointing to Knuckles and Shadow.

"Wow, thanks for outing us like that," Knuckles muttered.

Amy giggled and smiled more naturally. "Don't worry, Knuckles," she said consolingly. "It happens to everyone."

"Yeah, but not in class…" Knuckles muttered dejectedly. And then, suddenly, he stiffened. "Wait a minute… How did you know my name?"

All mirth faded from Amy's expression, and she wrapped her arms around herself protectively. "Huh?"

"I never said what my name was," Knuckles said again, his voice stiff. "How did you know it?"

"I…" Amy mumbled. "Um… I heard it?"

"Cut the bullshit!" Knuckles roared, making Amy flinch. "You know something! You're hiding something!"

It took all of three seconds for Amy to lose all composure and burst into tears right then and there. "I'm sorry!" she wailed. "I'm so sorry!"

But what did she have to apologize for? She didn't do anything wrong… but then again, why was she so familiar in the first place? "Mrs. Adams?" Sonic called. "You in here?" No response.

"I think she left a little while ago," Rouge said, sounding more and more uneasy by the minute. "Good. She doesn't have to hear any of this."

"Amy, what's going on?" Sonic asked, his voice completely serious for once.

But all Amy could do was sob and shake her head. Now Silver was comforting her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and hugging her tightly. At that moment, from the back of Shadow's mind, another vision surfaced. A blue planet standing amidst an endless sea of stars, the ground beneath him shuddering violently, a pink hedgehog pleading with him to do _something_… Two girls' voices mixed in his mind – Amy's, and Maria's. "Please, give them a chance!"

"This isn't real," Shadow whispered as more and more images flooded his mind. A dark shadow declaring his revenge for something Shadow had done in the past, a tall, ominous alien overlord, too many robots made to look like a black and red hedgehog to count, a colony up in space, orbiting the earth…

Rouge frowned and clenched her fists. "What are you talking about?" she asked slowly, realization slowly seeping into her eyes.

"All of this is an illusion," Shadow continued, struggling to keep his voice calm. "None of this is real. You knew… didn't you, Amy?"

The pink-haired girl nodded, and, for the first time, Shadow realized that it should have been a hedgehog there instead. "Ever since I first saw Sonic," she said through her tears.

"W-Wait a minute!" Silver interjected. "What's going on? What are you—"

"You see it too, don't you Silver?" Amy asked, her voice breaking. "You had it the worst. You and Shadow…"

Shadow bowed his head solemnly. The pretty blonde college girl Professor Gerald had introduced him to seemed so… _wrong_. "So these dreams we've been having…"

"Not to mention all the déjà vu…" Rouge added. "It's—"

"Reality," Amy finished. "All of it."

Sonic gave a heavy sigh. "Amy… Why didn't you say anything? Why did you keep it all to yourself?"

At this, Amy teared up again. "I'm so sorry!" she sobbed. "It's just… I wasn't sure whether to tell you guys or not, but then… But then I saw Shadow, and then I heard that Maria was actually _alive_, so I thought… But then Silver was so…"

Shadow narrowed his eyes at Amy, making her flinch slightly. "Are you an imbecile?" he demanded in a low voice. "Did you honestly believe that living a lie was even a viable solution?"

"Shadow!" Sonic hissed warningly.

Shadow sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling to rephrase his previous statement. "This world isn't as perfect as you think it is," he tried again. "Silver is a prime example; he's worse off here than he is in the real world."

"But—" Amy protested.

"I personally would prefer to go back," Shadow continued, "and not only because it's the right thing to do. The Maria here… she's alive and well, but she isn't _my_ Maria. Here, she's barely a step above a stranger."

Rouge smiled at him, and Shadow could almost see her as a bat instead of a human. "Okay," she said. "So we all agree that we should go back then. Besides – the reason we're even in this situation probably means that we aren't done with… whatever we have to do. So where do we go from here? How do we get back?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Beats me," he said. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this."

Sonic smiled wistfully as he bowed his head. "I… I have a little brother," he mumbled. "He… He's in elementary school. He's really smart, so…"

"You're talking about Tails, right?" Knuckles asked several seconds after Sonic trailed off. "But Sonic, he's…"

"I know," Sonic said shortly. "He's not _really_ my brother… is he?"

"Family very rarely is bound entirely by blood," Shadow said. "Just because he isn't biologically your brother, doesn't mean your bond with him is inferior in any way."

"So we're agreed, then?" Rouge asked. "We're going to find Tails and tell him everything that's going on?"

It was Silver who finally answered her. "For better or worse."

* * *

To say that Miles "Tails" Prower was confused would be a tremendous understatement. He knew his brother Sonic was popular in school, but he never expected him to return with so many of his friends. There was a tall boy with black and red hair, a girl with silver hair cropped short, a broad-shouldered boy with red dreadlocks, a girl with pink hair, and a boy with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail. Each and every one of them looked at least a little familiar. "Sonic?" he asked his brother slowly. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in school?"

"Tails…" Sonic mumbled. He was tense – his fists were clenched and he held his head too high. What could have possibly happened? "I need your help."

Tails looked to the pink-haired girl, who was wringing her hands together nervously. "Amy?" he called. "What's wrong?"

Her eyes widened as she gasped. "Y-You remember?" she squeaked.

"Yeah, I know who all of you are," Tails answered easily. "You're Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles, Amy, and Silver, right? I don't know how I know that, but I do." Amy and Silver looked like they were going to cry. Rouge and Sonic hung their heads, while Shadow and Knuckles turned away to hide their faces. "I'm right… aren't I?"

It was Knuckles who reacted first. The tall boy crouched down so that he was eye level with Tails, and Tails didn't miss the look of sadness and despair in his eyes. "Look, buddy," he said slowly. "This whole world… Everything that we're doing now… It's all fake. It's a dream. Something's going on in our real world, but someone decided to take us out of the action. We've got to go back, but we don't know how." Knuckles turned back to face the rest. "Am I forgetting anything?"

"I don't think so," Amy answered. "Tails, I'm so sorry."

The answer came slowly – too slowly for Tails's liking. An old man in a red suit, with a body shaped like an egg… "Dr. Eggman," he said. "He did this to us, didn't he?"

A fair bit of tension seemed to leave at that point, and Sonic rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Sure sounds like something he'd do," he muttered.

"I'm feeling a lot of energy from this place," Silver pointed out. "It's… buzzing, sort of. In the air. I think…"

"Chaos energy," Shadow said. "Whatever the doctor did to us, he used the Chaos Emeralds to do it."

"So you're saying we can't get out unless he lets us go," Rouge mused. "But what if we…" Her gaze drifted to Knuckles, whose face lit up in realization.

"I've got it!" Knuckles yelled triumphantly. "The Master Emerald! We'll use it to stop the Chaos Emeralds! We stop the Chaos Emeralds, then we can get out of here!"

"Everyone, get in a circle!" Amy ordered as she grabbed Sonic and Silver's hands. Sonic grabbed Tails's hand, who grabbed Knuckles's, who grabbed Rouge's, who grabbed Shadow's.

"All right," Knuckles said. "Everyone remember how this thing goes?" Everyone – even Shadow – smiled and nodded. "Okay! With me!"

And with that, they bowed their heads and closed their eyes, focusing only on the energy around them.

_The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos._

Knuckles lifted his head. "Only you can do this!"

"Please, help us!" Amy pleaded.

"Get us out of here!" Tails shouted.

"We've got a world to save!" Sonic proclaimed

"I'm ready to face my fears," Silver said quietly.

"Omega's probably worried sick about us," Rouge pointed out. "We need to get back to him and let him know that we're okay."

"Omega!" Shadow yelled to the sky. "If you're there, if you can hear us… Wait for us! We're coming!"

There was a flash of bright white light, and then nothing.

* * *

Amy groaned as consciousness slowly returned to her. Her eyes felt as if they'd been sewn shut, and they felt groggy. "Hey, are you okay, Amy?" It took a few minutes for her to register the fact that it was Silver's face hovering above hers – a white hedgehog, not a human.

With Silver's help, Amy hauled herself into a sitting position. "Is everyone okay?" she yelled.

"Doing great!" Tails, a fox with two tails as he should be, yelled cheerfully.

"Same here," Knuckles, back to a red echidna, agreed.

"I can't believe that actually worked!" Rouge the bat sighed.

"MASTER EMERALD RESCUE MISSION: SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED." A red robot clambered over to the group, and Rouge quickly tackled it in a hug.

"Omega!" she gushed. "We missed you!"

"Um… you guys?" Silver piped up. It was only now that Amy realized that the ground was trembling beneath her. "Why is the ground shaking?"

"The doctor probably pissed off another god or something," Shadow muttered irritably.

Knuckles sighed. "You think he'd learn after having his plans backfire because of that four freaking times."

"Hey, don't say that!" Tails snapped. "If he didn't try to use the Eclipse Cannon to take over the world, then Shadow and Rouge wouldn't be with us right now! And if he didn't try to control the Flames of Disaster, then Silver wouldn't be with us right now either!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Rouge agreed.

"Says the person who _worked_ for him," Shadow said with a smirk.

"Double agent!" Rouge shot back. "There's a difference!"

And, all the while, Amy smiled, despite all that was happening. Things were finally looking up. Her friends were here with her. Everything was going to be okay. "Don't we kind of have a job to do?" she pointed out.

"Yeah!" Sonic agreed. "We'll show that egg salad sandwich the real super power of _teamwork_!"

"Ew…" Silver groaned. "Please don't say that again. _Ever_."

"Yeah, Sonic," Knuckles scoffed. "It was pretty lame the first time."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Sonic yelled. "Now let's go! We've got a world to save!"

The world was hanging in the balance, but, as they charged forward, Amy could feel nothing but bliss.

* * *

_Cosmic retcon so that Silver remembers? And PTSD!Silver? That's why I said this was AUish. Anyway, please review!_


End file.
